Ko Kuei Chen (; 26 February 1898 – 12 December 1988) was a Chinese-American scientist who led pharmacological research at

Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 countries. The company was founded in 1876 by, and named after, Colonel ...

for 34 years. He is known for his work with ephedrine, cyanide poisoning therapy, and toad venom steroids. He was elected an inaugural member of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...

in 1948 and awarded the Remington Medal in 1965 for excellence in pharmacy.

Career

Chen was born in 1898 in

Jinze Jinze () is a town in Qingpu District of Shanghai, China. As of the 2017 census it had a population of 60,800 and an area of . The town is bordered by two provinces, namely Zhejiang and Jiangsu. With convenient land and water transportation, it is ...

, Jiangsu, now a town in Shanghai. After studying at Tsinghua College in Beijing, he moved to the United States in 1918 to further his education, earning a BS in 1920 and a PhD in 1923 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1923 he returned to China to work with CF Schmidt at Peking Union Medical College studying the effects of ephedrine. Upon finishing this appointment, he returned to the States to complete his studies with an MD from Johns Hopkins University in 1927. He continued working at Johns Hopkins for a couple of years before accepting an offer in 1929 from

to be the Director of Pharmacological Research. He held this position until his retirement in 1963.EJ Kahn Jr, All In A Century: The First 100 Years of Eli Lilly and Company, 1975, p104 During this time, he also accepted a part-time faculty appointment from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1937. Upon leaving Eli Lilly, he became full-time faculty and taught until 1968.Annu. Rev. Pharmcol. Toxicol. 1981. 21:1-6

Research

K. K. Chen was mostly known for bringing ephedrine to the western world. He developed his own isolation procedure from the Chinese herb Ma Huang (''

ephedra sinica ''Ephedra sinica'' (also known as Chinese ephedra or Ma Huang) is a species of ''Ephedra'' native to Mongolia, Russia (Buryatiya, Chita, Primorye), and northeastern China ( Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ni ...

''). Its medicinal value was long known in China as a remedy for asthma. Further research showed its value in treating

hay fever Allergic rhinitis, of which the seasonal type is called hay fever, is a type of inflammation in the nose that occurs when the immune system overreacts to allergens in the air. Signs and symptoms include a runny or stuffy nose, sneezing, red, i ...

and whooping cough. Other studies that may be credited to him include the successful treatment of cyanide poisoning with nitrite-thiosulfate therapy, structure-activity relationship of over 400 cardiac

glycosides In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. ...

and

toad venom steroids Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scienti ...

, heptatotoxic action of Senecio alkaloids, and synthetic analgesic drugs of the methadone series.KK Chen, The First Sixty Years 1908-1969, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 1969, p67

Personal life

Education was always an important factor in his life, learning the teachings of Confucius at a young age. He furthered his English with the debate team while at the University of Wisconsin and played the tuba with the

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

. He graduated there in 1920 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and finished his PhD in 1923. In order to help his ailing mother, he returned to China, continued his research, and taught classes at Peking Union Medical College. There he met Amy Ling, his future wife. They courted for several years and got married in 1929 after returning to the states.Sasha Welland, A Thousand Miles of Dreams, 2006, p6 Upon Chen's hiring at

, they settled down in Indianapolis, IN. Amy was a noted scientist herself and co-authored over 150 articles with her husband. Chen also had a keen interest in Chinese art and helped Eli Lilly amass a substantial collection which was eventually donated to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. His favorite sport was baseball. After his retirement in 1968, they moved to San Francisco until his death in 1988. He currently rests next to Amy in Bellefontaine Cemetery,

St. Louis, MO St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...

Honors and recognition

* 1920 Phi Beta Kappa, Univ Wisconsin * 1927 China Foundation Prize * 1946 Honorary Sc.D., Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science * 1948 Academician,

, Republic of China * 1952 Honorary Sc.D., Univ Wisconsin * 1952 President, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics * 1956 State Dept Delegate, 1st General Assembly of Intl Union of Physiological Sciences, Brussels * 1963 KK Chen Fellowship & Award established, Indiana University School of Medicine * 1965 Remington Honor Medal * 1966 AMA Distinguished Service Award * 1971 Honorary Sc.D., Indiana-Purdue University * 1972 President,

International Union of Pharmacology The International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) is a voluntary, non-profit association representing the interests of scientists in pharmacology-related fields to facilitate ''Better Medicines through Global Education and Resea ...

* 1974 Scientific Award, Chinese-American Medical Society * 1987 KK Chen Auditorium dedicated, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology * 2006 KK Chen Memorial Exhibit dedicated,

References

External links

American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Eli Lilly and Company

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

Indiana School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, KK 1898 births 1988 deaths American pharmacologists University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni Indiana University faculty Members of Academia Sinica Scientists from Shanghai Academic staff of Peking Union Medical College Chinese pharmacologists Chinese emigrants to the United States Eli Lilly and Company people Tsinghua University alumni 20th-century American chemists